Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish Senator Marc MacSharry well with his discussion document on the issue of suicide. I heard the Senator speak on LMFM this morning and he spoke well. I do not know, however, if we would get enough money from the off-licence trade to fund it. The funding might be discretionary.

A couple of weeks ago tributes were paid in the House to Pope Benedict on his retirement. I pay tribute today to Bishop Gerard Clifford, a native of Bellurgan, near Dundalk, which has been in the news for other reasons recently. He has stepped down as auxiliary bishop of Armagh on grounds of ill health. He was highly popular with clerics and the laity and his work covered the areas of ecumenism and education. He was president of Cura, the pregnancy support group. Crucially, he was part of the response of the Catholic Church in Ireland to the request made by the late Pope John Paul II for Christian churches to work more closely together. He was often the man in the gap who in his quiet way dealt with very difficult circumstances which caused him deep personal pain. When we talk about people in the church who are having problems, we must also when the occasion arises honour and pay tribute to someone who, like Felix Randal, the farrier, has done his duty.